A Diffrent Path
by ravenwingcorps
Summary: One person chooses to walk a different path in the battle for the planet.  Still a concept at this time, rating may change


**I decided i wanted to do a Final Fantasy story with a lesser character, this led me to two ideas that start from the same place, this is the second one**

A different path

Chapter 1

Fork in the road

Perhaps her heart had never been in it.

Maybe she never wanted to walk in her sister's shadow.

Although it was probably that event, that changed her course.

* * *

><p>In the polluted, grimy monster infested slums under the floating metal city of Midgar the only thing that mattered was power. If you had power people were willing to do almost anything for you because with power inevitably came money. Those with power could defeat the monsters that roamed the less secure parts of the slums. Those without the strength were left to fend for themselves; that was just how life went in the slums.<p>

Elena was the daughter of an instructor in the Shin-Ra military academy, her blond hair hung just below her shoulders and framed her rounded face, her brown eyes had a warm gaze despite the determination held behind them, a determination for power.

Elena's older sister was a member of a Shin-Ra division known as the Turks officially called 'The Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department.' Despite that the Turks were known as elite combatants, not as widely known as SOLDIER but they had a relative fame.

It was this group, The Turks, which Elena wanted to join. She attended a high school on top of the plate that covered the power dominated slums. She attended the Shin-Ra military academy and was one of the best, an expert marksman with skills in martial arts and with a sword, outclassed by only her sister. Unknown to her dad, a man she disliked due to his permanent military demeanour, Elena worked part-time at a bar in the slums, a sixteen year old girl working in a bar in one of the rougher places would not have been even considered anywhere else but the slums.

Elena had always had a desire to show her independence, something she learned early on that gained her dad's approval. To have that independence Elena saw fit to get a job, one she could do around the military academy and school, such a job could not be found atop the plate and so Elena searched among the slums and quickly discovered one fact. Most of the money that existed in the slums went through the various bars. As such she ended up as a bartender in the wall market.

She had been working at the bar for four months when the event happened, it was a busy night, despite that few men were actually too drunk to string a sentence together. There was a lot of laughter and a good mood ran throughout the bar, only the chipped walls and shabby wooden tables and the just as shabby stools gave away just how poor these people were, just how hard they had to work to survive.

It was as she was getting a drink for one of the more sober patrons that she noticed the sudden silence that hit the bar, the only sounds were of short panicky breaths. Gently placing the full glass in front of the greying worn man she had been getting the intoxicating drink for she followed his wide eyed gaze to the back of the pub. A man with a hooded face was holding another bar patron around his throat with one hand whilst the other hand held a gun to the man's temple.

Facing him was a man with dark hair in a black outfit that Elena recognised as the SOLDIER 1st class outfit, after his initial attempts at talking the hooded man failed to do anything to calm him down and release the man he was holding hostage the SOLDIER member rushed forwards and pushed the gun towards the ceiling before pulling the hooded man away from his hostage and bodily throwing the man into the air halfway across the bar.

The hooded man hit the floor head first and a crack along with the unnatural angle of his neck told everyone the man was dead, the member of SOLDIER just shook his head and began to walk towards the door. As he passed he took one look at Elena and said the words that changed Elena.

"You always have to be ready for anything."

* * *

><p>As she made her way home in a shocked silence Elena made a choice, she want to join the TURKS like her sister, she wanted to join SOLDIER. The first thing she did was walk into a weapon shop and bought a gun, along with the gun she bought a holster that could attach to a harness that would go around her stomach and run up her back and over shoulders and down her front, all of it designed to be hidden beneath her top, along with that she bought a few throwing knives and a holster that attached to the harness she had bought for her gun.<p>

Upon arriving home she immediately put on the harness beneath her top and attached the gun holster to the band around her stomach on the left side with the grip of the gun facing to her right as it sat in the holster so she could draw the gun with her right hand, on the right side opposite the gun holster she had her throwing knife holster angled so that the knives could be drawn with her left hand. That night as she climbed into bed she ripped part of her top off to leave her midriff bare and the gun that still sat in its holster within easy reach as she slept.

Elena would always be ready for anything and she would join SOLDIER.


End file.
